Bromine Level Vs Floater Setting Etc.

[tbenzie]

Hi. First off- I want to say thanks to all you "Gurus" for donating your time and sharing your knowledge.I found this forum several weeks ago when I started researching hot tubs after a 3 year hiatus from owning one. I never realized how relatively easy balanced and sanitized water could be until I found this forum. I also realized the extent of my ignorance and came to recognize the sins I had been committing as I chased the water chemsitry all over the map on my old tub.

Our first tub was an old Marquis that the mice took over. They turned the foam into their own Habitrail system and it got to be pretty disgusting. We tossed it (gave it away) and recently decided it's time for another one. About 3 weeks ago, after following the forum advice of wet testing several on our short-list (who woulda thought that wet testing was something that people did?), we got a new Sundance Cameo: 370 gals, UV(no ozone), circ pump set for 24 hrs. We decided on the 3 step bromine route as we are quite often gone on weekends anywhere from 2-4 days. Following the advice of the forum, I bought the Taylor test kit for Bromine and I flushed and decontaminated the tub before filling. We're on well water and I use a hose-end filter for filling. I got everything set up perfectly and has been running great for the last 3 weeks. I also put in 50ppm borates in the form of ProTeam Supreme Plus (same as Gentle Spa but in bulk). It's been a breeze! Parameters this AM - Bromine: 6, Ph: 7.8, TA: 70, Calcium: 140.

My questions:

1. The load has been 3-5 bather hours per week. Depending on the bromine level going in, we'll either shock with clorox or not. Example: if the bromine is above 6ppm or so and it's just my wife for 30 minutes, we wont add clorox. The next night it's at about 3-4ppm or so. If it's lower than 6, we'll put in an oz of clorox when she gets out. The next night it'll generally be about 5 or so. This is adjusted accordingly if I get in with her. I bought the floater that Waterbear recommends for the bromine tablets. I found that I need it on setting 11 (Approx 4 or 5 tablets exposed) for the bromine level to stay above 0 and below 10 with the periodic clorox additions. Reading about some of the other members' experiences, this seems high. I read about folks with the thing open 1/2" or so and their levels are maintained. It seems that I should have rapidly climbing levels at my setting. I expect I could turn the floater down and just add more clorox more frequently but I really don't want it climbing so high that it starts to degrade the cover, pillows etc. as I prefer not leaving it open to gas off after each soak - our primary use is just before bedtime. I also don't want it to fall to 0 if we're gone for a 4 day weekend. Does this seem normal? Thoughts/opinions/suggestions?

2. I did a shock yesterday. Added 6 oz of clorox which brought the bromine up to 15ppm. I had to leave the cover off with the jets running for 5 hours to get it back below 10. Is this a normal amount of time to drop the level 5ppm? The leaves are really falling (MN) and it was windy. You can imagine the debris in my tub after being open for 5 hours. Is there a target level for shocking? Is periodic shocking necessary? (I've read contradicting thoughts on this)

3. Considering all the above, do you think adding ozone would be a benefit to me? Being it oxidizes the bromide reserve to bomine, could that allow me to close down the floater a bit to slow down tablet usage?

Thanks for all your help and advice!

Tim

[Topspeed007]

Hi.

I think you are pretty much doing everything the same as me. I don't know about the floater as mine is different but I try and keep bromine around 5/6ppm. I normally don't shock on getting out as the floater seems to be open enough to replenish what's used by bathing and we have ozone. Trial and error seems to be the game - once you know your spa and set up you can 95% guess requirements.

Yes it takes ages for bromine to drop, I normally leave cover off for 1 hr with spa running after shocking and then cover system.

Waterbear seems to think, and I have no evidence to the contrary, that many ozone systems are nothing more than gimmicks- so that's your call.

[chem geek]

I wouldn't say ozone is a gimmick, but rather that it is useful in some situations and not in others. It can be useful for chlorine spa users if they use the spa every day or two (that is, if they have high bather-load) and it can be useful for bromine spa users. It's not very useful for those using a chlorine spa infrequently (once or twice a week or less) since ozone will oxidize chlorine so just ends up increasing chlorine demand.

[tbenzie]

Thanks Folks.

We just went away again this weekend - got back this morning. My wife was in the tub Friday morning before we left. Bromine was at 5 ppm when she got in. I instructed her to put in 1 oz of Clorox when she was done. When I got home at noon, I measured and it was at 11 ppm. Come to find out she misread the beaker and put in about 2 oz. I struggled with leaving the floater in or yanking it out while we were away. I left it in. We closed the lid and left for the weekend. This morning when we got home, it was at 4 ppm. No one was in it all weekend. I'm puzzled by this because the floater is set so high with 4-5 tablets exposed and the Bromine level was so high before we left, I expected it to be still pretty high when we got home. Others on this board indicate having their floaters open a fraction of what ours is. We were only gone 3 days and I'm concerned that that's about the longest we can be gone due to the observed Bromine level drop rate this weekend. We have a couple 6+ day vacations coming up and was hoping I could rely on the floater to maintain sanitizer level. At this rate it looks like it won't do it. Do you think there's something going on in our tub that is increasing sanitizer demand?

This is also the basis for ozone consideration thinking that may allow us to reduce the opening in the floater and get more time between tablet fills.

Thanks

[arches2]

i have an altmar which is just a tiny bit smaller than yours and i often have to keep my floater closed all the way and regulate the number of tablets. I have a flooded type floater so that's part of the problem. It certainly sounds like you may have some high demand stuf growing in there. If it was new there can be water left in it from factory testing that can then grow stuff. If the 370 gallons of water aren't an issue for you I'd super chlorinate it per the decon sticky. Probably don't need to spa flush it but you could add that 24 hours before doing the decon.

[tbenzie]

Thanks arches.

That's part of the mystery/confusion - I did the flush and decontaminate as per the sticky before using. That was about 4 weeks ago. Since then we've shocked to over 10ppm bromine twice.